Dryden McKay, the Minnesota state goaltender who won this year’s Hobey Baker Award for the NCAA’s best player, has accepted a six-month ban from competing for an anti-doping rule violation, according to the US Anti-Doping Agency.
The suspension period began on April 14, the date he accepted the sanction. McKay played his final NCAA game for the Mavericks on April 9, losing 5-1 to Denver in the Frozen Four’s national championship game.
“This experience was a very unexpected and difficult event for me and my family,” McKay said in a statement. “I remain optimistic and look forward to starting my professional career in the fall.”
McKay told ESPN that he was briefed on Feb. 1 that a urine sample collected Jan. 23 tested positive for ostarine, a muscle-growth drug that is not FDA-approved and is a banned substance by USADA’s Olympic protocol Paralympic Movement Tests, the National Anti-Doping Policy of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committees and the Anti-Doping Rules of the International Ice Hockey Federation.
The amount was trillionths of a gram, which McKay said provided no direct performance benefit.
The 24-year-old goaltender was subjected to a drug test after being named a reserve player for the US men’s hockey team at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. McKay’s services were eventually not needed.
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McKay suspected the Ostarine could have come from one of the supplements he was taking. He sent them all to a lab for testing. He said Ostarine was found in a supposedly “all-natural” vitamin D3 immune booster he took for 10 days during the COVID-19 Omicron variant surge.
“During USADA’s investigation into the circumstances of the case, USADA received results from a WADA-accredited laboratory that a supplement product used by McKay prior to sample collection that did not list Ostarine on the Supplement Facts label was contaminated with this substance Amount corresponding to the circumstances of its intake and its positive test. The Code provides an opportunity for a substantial reduction in the otherwise applicable period of ineligibility in these circumstances,” USADA said in its decision.
Because McKay was able to determine the source of the contamination, an arbiter lifted his suspension on February 3 pending a final decision from USADA. The NCAA and Minnesota State athletics have been made aware of the situation. The NCAA made its own decision that McKay was eligible to complete his senior season with the Mavericks, leading to the school’s first appearance in Division I hockey at the Frozen Four championship games.
“I knew[the verdict]was going to be after the season just because of the schedule,” McKay said.
He won the Hobey Baker Award after setting NCAA records that season with 37 wins and 34 shutouts.
He then accepted the six-month suspension on the advice of his attorney, Paul Greene.
“Typically the range (for inadvertent ingestion) is four to eight months or four to 10 months, depending on the situation,” Greene told Sportsnet. “They offered him six months, which is consistent with a lot of cases I’ve been involved with. He had a choice between accepting the six months or going to a hearing. We just decided it made best sense to accept the six-month ban. Now that his season is over, let the process begin.
McKay had decided to turn pro after this NCAA season. He was unselected in the NHL draft and is a free agent. He told ESPN during the Frozen Four that NHL teams haven’t pursued him because he’s only 5-foot-11, at a time when goalies who physically fill the net are preferable. The USADA ruling further complicates its schedule for a first pro season.
“I’m still trying to figure out (my future) and hopefully soon,” McKay said. “October 11 is the closest game I can play and I can start training in August.”